I received a digital copy from Zando – Hillman Grad Books via NetGalley. All views are my own
While thinking about further destroying my NetGalley feedback ratio, I discovered a Free Read that caught my attention. It was a picture book about the author who created A Rasin in the Sun. I never paid much attention to the book in high school, but I was surprised that a young Black woman wrote it. It interested me enough to want to learn more about her on a basic level, so the Free Read ended up on my ever-growing TBR list. Well, I finally got to it. This is the story of Lorraine Hansbury, as told by Jay Leslie.
"Lorraine Hansberry soared to fame when her play A Raisin in the Sun debuted on Broadway, and her work would go on to influence generations of artists. But before the spotlight, Lorraine was a little girl who walked everywhere with a notebook, eager to capture the sights, sounds, and stories of the people around her.What I Must Tell the World vividly follows Lorraine’s journey to finding her voice and her determination to bring Black stories to the stage. Jay Leslie’s text and Loveis Wise's artwork capture the experiences that inspired Lorraine, from her childhood in the segregated south side of Chicago to her adult years in Harlem creating alongside other legends like James Baldwin. Lyrical, vibrant, and empowering, this picture book is a celebration of Lorraine Hansberry’s life and legacy, and an ode to the power of theater and storytelling."
Despite the book's narrative style, I believe it has the potential to inspire young readers to learn more about Lorraine Hansbury's life. While Leslie's storytelling may be choppy, it's important to remember that this version was crafted for kids to explore independently.
From the story, I took that Hansbury was an exceptional figure in her time, shrouded by the negative notion of women trying to work and make a name for themselves. I also found it random the way her sexuality was introduced towards the end of the book. It was a puzzle piece that didn't fit. When you read the entirety of the book, it makes sense with the transitions into talking about A Raisin in the Sun, but it still felt like a fact thrown in as a 'wow' factor.
Overall, I rated this book 3-stars. It was slow in the beginning, the information was a rough draft of Hansbury's life, lacking in depth and detail, and random facts were thrown at the reader to gain some points from the Queer community. On a side note, this has nothing to do with the author or the story, but this book's ARC formatting could have been better. I couldn't transition between the pages because some were through text and some through pictures. I'm sure this will be fixed when the final version is officially out, but I would avoid reading this book digitally if it isn't.
What I Must Tell the World: How Lorraine Hansberry Found Her Voice is available October 22, 2024
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